


Dispair

by Fereael



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Dimitri is an edgy boy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:15:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24497071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fereael/pseuds/Fereael
Summary: It isn't Byleth who finds Dimitri in the tower
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	Dispair

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vandraios](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Vandraios).



Despair

It was dark in the tower, the sort of dark that comes with cloud and shadow and an hour long past twilight. It was cold there too, or at least he supposed it was. Stones were cold when you sat against them at night without a fire to warm them. Some distant, almost forgotten, part of his brain told him that. It was the same part of his brain that told him to eat sometimes, to drink when he was thirsty, and occasionally even to dare to try for sleep. These days he was hearing that voice less and less and in some vague distant way he knew that to be a bad thing, but even that knowledge now too was fading, fading into the numbness. it was the numbness that he felt when he sat against the tower’s stonewall, not the cold or the roughness of the stones or the stiffness of joints forced to remain still for hours on end. Just the numbness, all-consuming and never-ending and blotting out all other physical sensation. It left him inured to pain or exhaustion or want, it left him, floating and alone, and with nothing to distract him from the phantoms.

“Dimitri,” his father asked, “why haven't you avenged me?”

“I will! I swear I will!”

“Dimitri,” his stepmother gazed sadly down at him, “I thought you loved me.”

“I did love you! I do!”

“Dimitri,” Glen shook his head in sad confusion as he asked, “why did I have to die for you?”  
“It was her! All her! I'll be revenged on her for you! I swear! I swear!”

“Dimitri!”

“Dimitri!”

“Dimitri!”

Crack.  
The sound of booted feet on the uneven ruined stone of the steps cut through the voices of the shades like a knife. Dimitri’s head snapped up, his single remaining eye, wide and wary and searching the darkness. That had sounded real, real to his world, real to the point of his spear and the blow of his fist, real in the only way he knew how to understand real anymore. Another, quieter, click, from that same direction, and the shades vanished, melting back into Dimitri’s skin. Dimitri was so used to it, so used to feeling them squirming beneath his skin or surrounding him outside of it, that he didn't even notice them go. Some small part of his brain, a part which had some connection to the part of him that still insisted on eating every now and then, and some connection to the part of him that was only truly satisfied when covered in another person's blood, was paying attention to who or what was coming up the stairs. The rest of him though had simply dropped back into the numbness. If what was coming was a person he would have to kill them and if it was a spirit he would have to endure them, and until he knew which it was there was no reason to care. 

The sound of footsteps came to a stop at the top of the steps, just before the old wooden door. The door hung only half on its hinges these days but it still blocked enough of the opening that whoever it was would need to push it aside in order to step through. The part of Dimitri that was interested in the proceedings wondered if the door would open or if a spirit but simply stepped through the word without bothering with something as tangible as a doorhandle. Then the knob turned and the door swung slowly open.

Dimitri tensed a little, ready, even eager, the bloodshed that would follow, but even in his eagerness he was still not entirely sure whether the figure before him was flesh or phantom. Perhaps phantoms could open doors, perhaps he had fallen asleep and was dreaming again, perhaps the door wasn't really open and he was so far gone that he wouldn't know the difference. He couldn't make out the person at first, they stood shrouded in shadow and the darkness of night and Dimitri’s one eye sometimes blurred with the strain of remaining awake for so long. Then the figure stepped forward.

The moon was full at night, high and bright and it shone through a window which had long ago been shattered, falling onto the stones of the floor halfway between Dimitri and the door. The first part of the figure to step into that light were their feet, clad in brown leather boots, then the dark edge of their coat, then finally the rest of them, upper body shrouded in that code and face concealed by the shadow of their hood.

They stopped where they were, standing perfectly still, and though Dimitri could not make out their eyes he could feel that they were staring at him. Dimitri waited, waited for them to speak, to move, to threaten him as a human or condemn him as a phantom, but the figure did neither. It simply stood there, watching him.

“Who are you?” Dimitri’s words came out in a cracked gravel as disused vocal cords tried to remember how to make any sound other than a snarl.

“Who am I?” The figure asked, their voice was crisp and clear, their tone dripping in arrogant pride. “Who are you?”

“It doesn't matter.” This time Dimitri didn't bother to try to keep the snarl from his voice. If this was an imperial assassin looking for him he didn't see any need to bother telling them that their search was unsuccessful before he killed them.

“No, I don't suppose it does, or at least very soon will not, but what you want? That does matter.”

“What I want?” The words left Dimitri’s mouth in a bitter growl. was starting to think that this was a spirit after all. What human would come all the way to the ruined monastery, climb its highest tower, and confront a wild boar in its den only to ask him what he wanted. “I want to avenge them, all of them. I want to tear this land apart until I come to her and then I want to tear her apart to! I want to kill her, destroy her, and hang her head above the gates of Enbarr!”

“You want power.” Dimitri’s words had ended in a roar but the voice of the other remained unchanged. “More than that, you want victory and vengeance and the ability to rip the land part until you have them.” Dimitri still could not make out any details of the face of the figure before him but he thought he heard a cruel smile reflected in those words. “What you seek, in short, is destruction, and destruction is my element.”

“You, however, do not yet hold its power.” The figure laughed and Dimitri’s hand tightened instinctively around the shaft of his lance, but he made no other move to attack the figure before him. There was something about them, something, some power he could sense in them, which kept him spellbound. “If you set out to try to do this now, all on your own you will fail and you will die and nothing you seek will be achieved.”

“I don't need anyone's help!” Dimitri snapped back.

The figure laughed again. “Oh you do, you do little prince. I see your surprise, yes I know who you are, just as I know that as you are you can achieve nothing. Yet you have a choice, you need not perish here, it is not been written. I give you a chance to live, live and author a destiny far greater than you know.”

“Destiny? What do I care for destiny?” Dimitri growled from between teeth gritted against some emotion he could not quite name.

“It doesn't matter if you care for or not, what matters only is that I am offering you a choice, die a pitiful meaningless death or live to bring destruction the Empire you so loath and the woman you despise.”

Figure raised one arm and reached out, opening their hand until it became a clear invitation as it waited for Dimitri’s own. “You wrestle with spirits? I will help you to drown them, drown them in the blood of all those who have ever wronged you and all those who cross your path. I need a partner in this world young Prince, I need the power of someone who bears the crest of this land, and in return I will grant you power, the power you need to drown the world in her blood.”

Dimitri stared at that outstretched hand for a long moment. Strange as this stranger's assertions were he could feel the truth of them, feel the figures power, there strength, feel it the way they stood and the way they spoke and in every breath which fell from their lips and in the night air. Dimitri did not doubt the power. Some part of him which wished only for solitude rebelled against the offer, wishing to take up his spirit at his side and slash that hand from that wrist and so and all talk of companionship. Yet beneath his skin the ghosts were screaming, screaming for vengeance, and for blood, and for destruction. Dimitri felt like there was some memory, some figure from his past, some flicker of green hair in the periphery of his eyes, which told him not to do this, not to trust this being shadow and mystery, not make this mistake. But the memory would not come clear, the figure would not come into focus, and would not come into focus for another few weeks and by then it would be too late. Dimitri took the outstretched hand in slim fingers closed around his own.

“Very good,” and again Dimitri could here a smile in that cold arrogant voice.

“Who are you?” Dimitri asked again, his voice emerging this time not as a growl but as a half whispered croak. 

The figure laughed. “Fool of a human, you really don't know me do you.” They raised their freehand and with it they at last pushed back their hood to reveal snow white hair and gleaming red eyes. “I am the wings of despair and I am the breath of ruin. I am the fell dragon, Grima. Come with me now, oh Prince of Fargus, and I shall give you my power!”

**Author's Note:**

> This is a oneshot for now but I've been thinking a little about who things might proceed so if people are interested I might write more. We'll see.


End file.
